North Harford outlasts Patterson Mill for key field hockey win

The North Harford Hawks won their third straight UCBAC Chesapeake Division field hockey game Monday, but not without a scare from host Patterson Mill.

The Hawks, (3-0, 5-4) edged the Huskies (1-2, 4-6), 3-2. The game was tied 1-1 at the half.

“This is a great start in the division. We started off the season playing really tough competition out of league,” Hawks coach Carla Harward said. “So I did that particularly so that when we get into our divisional play, that would help us to get stronger.”

The Hawks struck first just under four minutes into the game. Junior Ariel Limpert, the hero in last week’s 1-0 win over Fallston, scored off a corner. “The initial shot was saved by the goalie and then I got the rebound and I shot it in and it went into the left corner in the goal,” Limpert said.

The shot was low and hard and Huskies goalie Emily Pascoe had no real chance.

Despite five more corner opportunities, the Hawks were unable to score again in the first half.

Patterson Mill had a slow offensive start, but action picked up later in the half. The Huskies also had six corners, but it wasn’t a corner that provided the tying goal. Molly Egan was standing out in front of the Hawks goal alone.

Julia Frankis played the ball to her and Egan pounded it into the back of the open goal with 4:01 left in the half.

The score remained tied late into the second half. Three goals were scored in the final 5:36 of the game.

Meridith Price put the Hawks back ahead, 2-1. Price took a pass from Limpert and pushed it past Pascoe and into the goal.

With 2:47 left the Hawks added an insurance goal. Cassie Rickey did the honors with an assist from Brooke Ciampaglio.

It turned out to be a little more than insurance as the Huskies made it interesting in the closing minutes.

After a yellow card was issued to a North Harford player with just under two minutes to play, Sarah McCollum pulled the Huskies back to within a goal with 1:08 left on the clock. The goal was assisted by Jasmine Sabol.

The Huskies, still a player up, then put on serious push in the final seconds, but the Hawks defense and goalie Skylar Limpert tuned away the final Patterson Mill shots.

“I think we played a really good game, a lot of the shots, especially from No. 9 [Ariel Limpert] were really hard and they had a very good offense.” Huskies goalie Pascoe said, “Overall, I think we did very well as a team.”

Pascoe had a solid day with 12 saves. Skylar Limpert made six saves in the Hawks goal.